How or why are # vs ? and & different

**Learning Newbie** · 01-24-2008, 02:01 PM

I know on some level this is a dumb question, but humor me. Yesterday Adam said something about # in the URL not having any bearing on PageRank. "Why should it - it's just an anchor point, not a new page or anything."

That makes sense until you figure ? and & make the same location a new page. I realize query strings are processed at the server and anchor points are processed at the client. But does that really turn it into a new page?

What's the logic?

**ADAM Web Design** · 01-24-2008, 02:29 PM

"It depends". That's the short answer.

The long answer is that, if the querystring generates a different page (e.g. Product_ID=4 vs. Product_ID=5), then yes, it turns it into a new page. If, however, the querystring is used for some other purpose and doesn't impact on the content of the page (e.g. Spammer_Affiliate_ID_Plugging_the_Six_Millionth_Cr appy_Useless_eBook=bobthecluelessloser), then no.

**Learning Newbie** · 01-24-2008, 04:15 PM

Or Session ID hashes.

But say it's mypage.aspx?ProductID=4 - if you change it to 5, some of the content changes, but most of the page remains the same, right? I know WordPress defaults to sending in a post ID from the query string in the URL, and in theory a post could be mostly different except the theme.

But then when I leave a comment on a blog, it's URL#comment-1394 which seems like a query string to me, and also indicates the URL itself has been changed. I understand that #comment-1394 is part of URL so if you grab that you have everything you need.

Still, couldn't I do cheap trick SEO like

It just seem to break the whole sites have pages structure of the web.